Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"I will make you return to that pure and radiant light."

This is Estend's promise.

……

……

"呲呲..."

A wisp of black smoke hit Estend's face directly, startling him from his reverie.

Estend twirled the charred fish in his hand, blackened bits of it falling into the flames below. He opened his mouth and said, "Samuel."

Samuel stopped chopping wood and turned to look at him.

"You need to catch another fish."

Chapter Nineteen: A Star-Strewn Midnight

Since the goal is to gather intelligence, then we should do what intelligence thieves do.

Two figures stealthily slipped into a residential area through a blind spot in the surveillance cameras and arrived at the foot of a tall building.

"Samuel, help me see which apartment is empty." Estend looked up at the dozens of stories high building. It was late at night, and the stars filled the sky, making it the perfect time to do something sneaky.

He had figured out that this planet relied heavily on the internet to transmit information, and that almost every household had a terminal called a "computer"—as long as there was a medium for transmitting information, he could get what he wanted.

Samuel nodded, a flash of silver light appearing briefly in his dark eyes. The skyscrapers appeared as transparent frameworks to him, revealing everything inside, including the objects and people.

He spotted an empty room that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while, with a thin layer of dust on the floor.

“Unit 4, 14th floor, the one near the west side…” Samuel focused his attention and saw the sign on the door: “1402”.

"Is there a computer? Uh, it looks similar to our miniature terminal, but it shouldn't be a floating light screen..." Estend asked.

“There are two,” Samuel replied.

“Alright, that’s him!” Estend waved downwards to signal Samuel to stop looking, and said, “Let me think about how to get up there. The window you just saw was closed?”

Samuel continued to nod.

"That's a bit of a problem. I can't disturb the neighbors. I have to sneak in quietly... Whoa?" Estend felt himself being lifted into the air, and the next second he realized that he couldn't wake anyone, so he suppressed his exclamation.

Samuel hoisted Estend onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, then leaped lightly, landing on the edge of the 12th-floor balcony. He jumped up again, repeating this several times, until he was gracefully hanging in front of the window of the target room.

Estend, face down, frantically grabbed Samuel's scarf from behind. Samuel supported Estend with one hand, while the other dangled from the top of the window frame onto a protruding section of the wall. A fleeting, milky-white eyed phantom appeared, and the pale blue crystal on his forehead lit up.

He turned his head, and the faint light hissed a few times, cutting the glass into a perfect square, just big enough for half of his body to fit inside.

"Hey, don't wake up the people upstairs and downstairs," Estend muttered under his breath. The severed glass obediently floated to the side, and Samuel first threw Estend inside, then climbed in himself, controlling the glass to fall and gently leaning against the wall.

Estend stared at the open window in silence for a moment, then said, "You fix it... Oh, and remember this next sentence."

Samuel's nodding machine continued to nod.

"Don't damage anything. This isn't a testing ground," Estend said seriously.

"Confirmed, is this the guide's command?"

“Of course,” Estend continued, “Also, Earthlings aren’t monsters your teacher gives you for tests; you can’t attack them at will.”

Samuel tilted his head slightly: "If Earthlings attack me, can I retaliate?"

Eistend hesitated for a moment: "Let's see how it goes. We need to figure out if it was an accident or something else..."

Samuel remained silent, waiting for him to continue. Estend scratched his head: "If that's the case, then wait for my instructions. You must not act until I reply."

“Yes.” Samuel wrote it down carefully.

Is this a start? The Samuel Transformation Project.

He turned and went into the room, came to a computer, and explored it from top to bottom and front to back, discovering several cables on the back of the host.

"Hmm, this looks like an energy cable, connected to the circuit."

"What input device is this connected to?"

"Is this the one that connects to the Earth's network?"

Estend

He rolled up his sleeve a little, revealing a miniature terminal a few centimeters below his wrist. "Samuel, keep an eye out for anyone coming. I need to spend some time connecting the terminal to the Earth Defense Force's network."

If you don't sneak into the Earth Defense Force's network, how will you know where the monsters are? And if you don't know where the monsters are, how will you gather information about the Ultra Warriors? If you've been on Earth for a month and still can't get into this kind of network, your teacher will probably shake your head off. At least you have to keep up appearances.

Eisted quickly operated his computer, searching for the Earth Defense Force's network interface. As long as one of the Defense Force's computers had a physical connection to the external network, he could trace the connection through that network cable.

The terminal's glowing blue screen illuminated Estend's face. The pale moonlight bathed him, and Samuel stood in the darkness, a faint silver glint in his eyes.

After typing the last character, the content flashing on the screen changed, and the four letters "GUYS" appeared in the middle of the screen.

Estend smiled with satisfaction, and then modified a license certificate for his terminal on the GUYS network so that he could request and receive data from within GUYS at any time using his micro-terminal.

From now on, I can just stay home, wait for monster alerts, and stake out wherever they appear, casually gathering data on Ultraman warriors. The rest of the time I can wander around and see what new and interesting plants this earth has to offer. Perfect!

Estend stood up and said, "All done, Samuel, let's go back."

"Oh, and get the window fixed!"

In the star-studded midnight, a man in a scarf, carrying what looked like a sack, hung himself outside the 14th floor.

He used his mind to reattach the cut glass, and the pale blue crystal light dissolved and glued the gaps perfectly. With Samuel's eyesight, he could only see a dim seam. With the eyesight of an ordinary person, even with a magnifying glass, they should not be able to see anything.

Behind him, the burlap sack looked down at the eerily cold ground under the moonlight, trembled, and clutched its dark red scarf tightly.

On the other side, Phoenix Nest.

Apart from the staff still on duty, the living area was completely silent.

The young man with fluffy, soft hair was not asleep. He leaned against the pillow, and the night breeze made the hair on his forehead tremble slightly.

On the opposite wall was a large, blatant "GUYS" sign. A little to the left was a window, and the young man seemed to be looking at those four letters, or perhaps looking out the window, his eyes unfocused, as if he were thinking about something.

Judging from the smile on his face, he must be thinking about something good.

A few rooms away, in a room decorated with a distinctly girlish touch, a short-haired girl rolled over and mumbled sleepily, "Mikuras...cute..."

Chapter Twenty: The Vanishing Aura

Mikulas was awakened again in the middle of the city.

There stood a fierce-looking guy right across from us.

It has horns, very sharp, and looks like it could pierce through two of itself.

It has long, sharp bone claws that look like they could split a head open with a single claw.

It has a flexible tail with bone spurs wrapped around its tip; it looks... unbelievable.

Mikulas stretched out his tiny paws, which were somewhat small compared to his own face, and hugged his square-shaped self, turning his head to look at the position of "Mother".

The mother was clearly also frightened; she was holding onto a large rock, looking like she wanted to leave but couldn't.

"What's wrong, Mikuras? Fight!" The "Mother's" voice trembled: "Please!"

……

……

"A modified monster created by Earthlings, hmm... a bit timid."

On the rooftop of a building in the distance, Eistend gazed at the artificial monster confronting Kerubim: "We can add one more item to the intelligence: Earthlings have acquired the ability to control monsters."

Although it doesn't seem to be a very powerful monster, it's a good start. The things taught in Arantar's Universal Knowledge class are indeed misleading. Aren't the "backward civilizations" and "uncivilized fools" they talk about also following their own path of development?

"Ran."

It was Samuel's voice.

"Huh?" Estend, who was lost in his own thoughts and had started to space out again, came back to his senses and looked again. The artificial monster that had turned to run away had been knocked down by Kerubim's tail whip and had collapsed a building.

Mikulas seemed terrified and didn't dare to fight, getting completely overwhelmed by Kerubim.

"Hey!" Estend put down his hand, which was recording information on the terminal: "Samuel! Check if there are any people buried under that building!"

The two monsters were still fighting in the city. Fortunately, there was a large open space where Mikulas was standing. Apart from one building that was affected earlier, even though Mikulas was knocked down again and disappeared, no other buildings were involved.

“The factory,” Samuel said, his gaze piercing through the layers of collapsed bricks to the twisted and crushed machines inside. “No Earthlings were found.”

Mikulas disappeared, and for some reason, Kerubim also stopped moving. After letting out a roar, he hurriedly flew into the sky as if being chased by something.

Samuel suddenly looked warily in the direction Kerubim had flown off to, while Estend breathed a sigh of relief that no one had been injured.

"Signal of other monsters detected. Guide, please give the order."

Estend looked around; apart from the building that had just collapsed...

The building was still covered in dust, and the monsters that had fought earlier were gone. Nothing else was visible.

“No need,” Samuel said, still on high alert, his silvery eyes scanning the surroundings with even greater caution. “The aura has vanished.”

Do you recognize that monster's aura?

During the actual combat tests, he completely dismantled the monster army of the 4th Research Institute. In addition, he was later dispatched to various nebulae to capture live monsters, so Samuel should know quite a few monsters.

“It appeared for too short a time to be sure,” Samuel shook his head, “but… Kerubim was scared away by it.”

Samuel spoke with certainty, and Estend didn't question it. Compared to his time as Fos-001, Samuel had become much more sensitive to the aura of monsters—more accurately, the aura of ferocious monsters—perhaps it could be described as "a beast's instinct"? This had saved him many times and saved the equipment department a lot of work. Therefore, while Estend might interfere in other matters, he always trusted Samuel's judgment when it came to monsters.